About On Leaving the composer writes: For this composition I turned to the prayer book and selected lines from the ‘Canon to Jesus Christ Our Lord and the Virgin Mary on the Hour of Leaving of Orthodox Souls’ (parts 1-3) and from the chapter ‘On Burying Lay People’ (parts 4-5). While working on the composition I acquainted myself with the 15th-17th century tradition of (Russian) polyphonic singing and with various forms of Russian sacred poetry. The natural dissonance and the almost impenetrable...